Slices of life from my little corner of the world

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How do you say good-bye to your home? For 13 years, my teaching home was in this place. For the last 4 years, my new position has allowed me visits. As this year is winding down, I am gearing up to return to the classroom, but not at my home. A new home is heading my way. I am beyond excited to have the opportunity to be in the classroom again. There is nothing like it. I am beyond excited to work in a school that I’ve admired for 17 years.

But, that good-bye.

17 years, 4 principals, 2 classrooms and an office, countless students, amazing teachers. In 17 years you see a lot. You learn a lot. You’ll miss a lot. This school is where my teaching career began. It was the epicenter of the ebb and flow of my life.

It’s where I was when I got engaged and my class threw me a tropical wedding shower ahead of my destination wedding.

It’s where I was when my father was ill and my amazing teaching friends held me up and got me through the days.

It’s where I was when my life fell apart and an intervention was held to whip me into shape.

It’s where I was when I had my daughter and one of my students talked to her in my belly every single day.

It’s where I was, sitting before my principal, thanking each one for taking a chance on me. To hire me, to trust me, to give me the opportunity to reach beyond my classroom in so many ways.

It’s where I was, year after year. Every accomplishment celebrated. Every struggle supported. The people that I have worked with all these years, while many have come and gone, have shaped me to be the teacher that I am today. Every single one. They’re my family.

So as this year ends, look around. Find those peeps that helped you do you. They’re everywhere. Schools are just like that. They’re filled with the people that laugh with you, cry with you, push you, and support you.

Spring break usually brings a day or two of useless, waste the minutes away, type of days. The types of days when you don’t have to leave the house unless you want to. When you can whimsically make decisions based on your preference of the second. The types of days I don’t often get without careful planning. The type of days that I just can’t get my hands on this week due to a variety of circumstance.

So I’ve been making the most of the pockets of times between “drop off Maddie” and “pick up Maddie.”

Drop off Maddie.
Read some magazines.
Watch a show or two.
Snack on some Ding Dongs.
Pick up Maddie.

Back to life.

Drop off Maddie.
Ignore the dishes.
Put the laundry away.
Start a book.
Enjoy the silence.
Eat some Nerds.
Pick up Maddie.

Back to life.

Drop off Maddie.
Catch up with a friend.
Snuggle with the furball.
Miss Maddie.
Pick up Maddie.

Maddie is going to be eight this summer. There’s a lot of things we’re holding on to in a last ditch effort to slow time. Both Brian and I are at varying degrees of letting go. This was most evident during a conversation the other day.
Maddie is world famous for not being able to find her own hand when it’s right in front of her face. I was relaying how she couldn’t find the applesauce one morning so she asked if she could have potato chips instead. Of course I said, no chance kiddo. Make some toast and have some strawberries. I chuckled at her attempt to work the system.

Where were YOU? He asked in what I might say was an accusatory tone.

You let her use the TOASTER?! What if she burns herself? What if she used a knife to get it out?

Yep, accusatory. We remain divided on how much kitchen responsibility an eight year old can handle. I wasn’t about to remind him that she carefully cuts her own strawberries most mornings. He may have called the authorities.

Meanwhile, Maddie is becoming quite the seamstress. She’s designing dresses for her dolls, sewing little animals for her dolls, and is a pillow making machine.

She proudly shows off her creations to her Dad and he returns with genuine appreciation for her skills.

I can only assume that he has no idea she operates a sewing machine. Or that she threads and works a very sharp needle and works a hot glue gun to attach details.

It’s no secret that books are my jam. Nor is it a secret that I am not much of a multi-tasker when one particular thing is taking up all the real estate in my mind. The current monopoly in my mind is books. Not much a change, except I’ve got to adjust the lease. I’ve got to create vacancies for the new occupants: books that take up the real estate in the minds of eight year old readers.

This is how I found myself diving into the stacks of a local book rescue. Found myself sitting on an ancient library stool flipping through each title imagining the reaction of each reader and looking for the opportunities for the teacher in me. There were titles that brought back memories and titles that were new discoveries. Some that will be mentor texts and some that are just plain fun.

Two bags of books to be stamped and inventoried. It’s a start.

A start to building a place that welcomes readers and encourages them to explore. A place where they can discover their passions and delve into their wonderings. A place that takes us places beyond the four walls of our classroom. A place where we can bring the world to our fingertips.

For me, it’s the most important piece of a classroom. It offers possibility and wonder. It allows children to see themselves both in and behind the words. It’s a place for us to gather together, or alone, to be readers and writers. Most important of all, thinkers and learners.

It’s the classroom library.

And I’m on a mission. A mission that starts today and never ends. For this piece is ever changing and adapting to its occupants.

Human beings are fragile. This line is lifted from a friend’s slice yesterday and it is stuck in my mind with a hold that is demanding I lift it and lay it down in a slice of my own.

Human beings are fragile. In one moment you are finally watching the long held in the DVR episode of your favorite TV show, and then the world tilts on its axis when you hear of some friends’ broken hearts.

People, I know are rimmed with the most fragile of edges. Those edges start to fold in when the most devastating of news strikes. When a loss takes those edges and powers through to a person’s core, you’d think they’d be done.

But as your heart is breaking for their broken heart, you discover that the fragile parts of us don’t stand a chance against love, comfort, compassion, and faith. Those elements of us join forces and hold our fragile edges together. I’m seeing it first hand.

In their love for a mom and grandma that will always remain strong no matter the distance of time from this loss. In their comfort in her again joining those lost before her, making this family on earth one less, but that family in heaven, one more. In their compassion toward others that are feeling this loss, and you just know they follow the example set forth for them, and they truly mean it. In their faith that shines through every snippet, story, and memory they share with the world.

Their love. Their comfort. Their compassion. Their faith.

Human beings are fragile. But these other forces bolster our fragile edges and somehow bring us the strength to keep going. Maybe even, the fragile edges are where they are so that the power of these forces can break through and bring us peace in the most difficult of times.

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Writing has become a public part of me. Never thought I'd say that! I'm a teacher turned literacy coach turned classroom teacher again. Navigating my corner of the world brings new rewards and challenges every day.